The present invention relates to vehicular mounted lifts, and, in particular, a winch operated lift for placing and removing cargo from the bed of a truck.
Lighter duty trucks, such as pick-up trucks, are versatile transports for a wide variety of cargo. Light-weight materials can be easily loaded and unloaded from the raised bed. Heavier materials, however, are difficult and lift accessories, such as forklifts and external lifts, are required. Inasmuch as such supplemental equipment is not always available throughout the normal use and travel of the truck, various truck mounted hoists have been proposed in the art for permitting the operator, without assistance, to place and remove cargo from the truck bed. Such hoists have tended to be costly, heavy and bulky, and require structural alteration to the truck body.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,947,425 to Nichols discloses a truck hoist having a pivotal lifting arm, mounted at the top of a truck bed mounted support pole, that is raised or lowered by a hydraulic cylinder. The hoist is permanently installed on the truck body. A similar hydraulically operated hoist is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,922 to Hawkins. U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,358 to Harlan discloses a truck hoist also using a hydraulic cylinder for raising a pivoting boom thereby raising and lowering a fixed length cable for moving cargo to and from the truck bed. Similar hydraulic hoists are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,7100,090 to DeLuca et al. and 4,671,731 at Harlan. The use of fixed cable lengths limits the pick and place accuracy of the hoist. Other hoists have provided cable winches to assist in raising and lower cargo in combination with truck mounted masts and pivotal booms as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,445,487 to Koscinski, and 6,138,991 to Myers. Fixed height booms are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,765,809 to Baker, 3,899,089 to Wardlaw, and 6,085,349 to O""Meara. In an effort to overcome the foregoing limitations, it would be desirable to provide a hoist for a truck bed that loads and unloads cargo of varying shapes and sizes with minimal effort and maximum accuracy, readily deploys and stows without affecting cargo space, and incorporated with a minimum of alterations to the truck bed.
The foregoing objects are accomplished by an easily mounted hoist having a pivotal mast attached at a comer of the truck bed for rotation about a vertical axis and an extendable telescopic boom pivotally supported at a lower end for rotation about a vertical axis at an inclination provided with an adjustable boom chain. An electric winch carried on the boom controls a lifting cable at the top of the boom. The chain and boom may be readily removed or collapsed for convenient storage without affecting the load carrying capacity of the truck bed. The dual pivotal axes and extendable boom permit ready orientation of the cable for accurately picking and placing cargo to and from the truck body. The selective pivoting and extending of the boom allows transfer of tall cargo. The electric winch is readily connected to the vehicle power supply and provides substantial lifting capacity. The present invention provides a quick mount hoist for trucks that may be readily deployed for transferring cargo and disassemble and stowed permitting full capacity operation for transporting.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a truck mounted lift that may be readily deployed and stowed without limiting truck bed capacity.
Another object of the invention is to provide a truck bed mounted lift having a biaxially pivotal boom for accurate placement and removal of cargo from a truck bed.
A further object of the invention is to provide a winch operated pivotal boom lift that may be mounted on a truck bed with minimal operations.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a truck bed lift with a fully adjustable boom and electrical winch cable for loading and unloading cargo.